High salt level

[JDYORK]

I was posting in the just getting started section about my issues but thought it might help if I posted in the swg section since it involves my swg. My situtaion is as follows:

I have a been having issues with my pool ever since super storm sandy flooded the area I live in with 6-8 feet of standing ocean water until the tide went out. The salt levels have been very high ever since the storm. I partially drained the water (even with the first step) and put fresh water back in. Prior to doing that my swg stated that the salt level was too high and after the drain/refill the swg went to 2900. I thought everything was ok but was never able to get the pool to stay clear and algae started to form just recently. So today I cleaned the cell with acid and then the swg read 100 for the salt level and that I needed to check the cell. I went to the pool store to by salt and had them test the water and they got a reading of 44,000 using a digital tester. I just purchase a taylor k-2006 kit and got the following readings:

ph 8.0
ta 80
ch 150
cya 30 (but the black dot never fully disappeared but I reached the top of the vial)

Another thing to note is that I never added salt to the pool since the storm, because the swg had a reading of 2900. I added 3 bags today prior to getting the water tested and now the swg is reading 0.

Hopefully someone can give me swg specific insight.

 

[JDYORK]

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[SunnyOptimism]

So you never changed the salt cell after Sandy?

Sea water is in the neighborhood of 35,000 ppm or about 10X what most SWGs need. If the pool store is reading 44,000 ppm, then something is seriously screwed up

You should prob get your own Taylor drops or AquaChek strips to confirm what your salt level is.


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[svenpup]

...The salt levels have been very high ever since the storm...
...after the drain/refill the swg went to 2900...
...So today I cleaned the cell with acid and then the swg read 100 for the salt level and that I needed to check the cell...
...I went to the pool store to by salt and had them test the water and they got a reading of 44,000 using a digital tester...

It's kinda hard to follow your story here. It sounds like the storm is irrelevant since you had salt in range and SWG working after the storm. Is the 44,000 a typo? Did you mean 4400?

It sound like your cell may be dead. How old is it and what sort of run times has it experienced (hours per day and percent)? What did it look like when you cleaned it?



Also:

• Since you have algae you need to S.L.A.M. You do not use your SWG for this so you can start immediately while trouble shooting the SWG.

• your ph is too high. 8.0 is the max of the test so it may in fact be much higher than that. This is contributing to any scaling you see on the cell. Use muriatic acid immediately to reduce this to 7.5

• Your CYA is too low for an SWG. This could be contributing to excessive FC loss and in turn more wear on the cell and the FC dropping which allowed the algae to take hold.
  If the black dot was obscured but still visible I would assume it is 15. Add 15ppm to get to 30 for the SLAM. After your SLAM is over and the SWG is working this should be raised to 70-80.

 

[JDYORK]

The 44,000 number came from the pool store so I can only go by what I was told. I just ordered the taylor kit for testing the salt level, and I never replaced the cell after Sandy so that is why I was thinking that is was bad?

 

[JDYORK]

The 44,000 came from the pool store so that may or may not be accurate. I just ordered the salt level kit and it will be here by monday. The reading that I quoted came from the swg after the water was drained, but I guess the big question was/is if the swg system was damaged and functioning properly after being underwater. The cell was installed approx 6 years and would run approx 8 hours a day for the summer season at different %

- - - Updated - - -

just used an aquachek strip which read 4300

 

[SunnyOptimism]

The 44,000 number came from the pool store so I can only go by what I was told. I just ordered the taylor kit for testing the salt level, and I never replaced the cell after Sandy so that is why I was thinking that is was bad?

Since you stated that "ever since Sandy I've had algae problems" and that you never changed your cell, I'm going to make a pretty safe bet that your SWG cell is hosed and that your water problems are due to an dysfunctional salt cell.

If I were you, I'd follow a SLAM procedure to clear up the water using liquid chlorine (turn off the SWG) and then start from water that you know is correct. Once you get the water balance correct for an SWG pool, only then would I turn the unit back on and see if it is working. If your FC drops or can't be maintained by the cell, then it's time to get a new one.

Did the cell power supply or electronics get submerged by Sandy? If so, then it's entirely possible you could need a whole new setup (SWG, cell power supply and controller)


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[JDYORK]

The cell was totally submerged and the electronics had the bottom half of it (about 2-3 inches) submerged.

 

[SunnyOptimism]

The cell was totally submerged and the electronics had the bottom half of it (about 2-3 inches) submerged.

Yeah. I'm extremely suspect of your electronics now. Brackish sea water is not good at all for electronics.

Turn off your SWG system and get your pool water right using liquid chlorine and the methods described in PoolSchool. Then you can try to debug your cell issues


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[JasonLion]

The water chemistry is far enough off that the cell might actually be working but is unable to overcome the levels being that far off.

I recommend getting your levels balanced and killing off the algae manually. Then see if the SWG can take over from there, or not.

Posting the sequence of numbers that show up when you press the diagnostic button will help figure out if anything is wrong with the SWG.